My Return

"My Return" is sure to provoke intense public discussion and controversy. The author, Jack Henry Abbott, is now serving a fifteen-years-to-life sentence for the 1981 stabbing of Richard Adan, a young night manager of the Binibon Cafe on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Except for a short-lived escape from prison in 1971, Abbott had been incarcerated in one institution or another since he was thirteen years old. His parole placed him in another potentially violent environment, but one that had a completely different set of rules. He has consistently maintained that he thought Richard Adan was carrying a knife and that his attack on Adan was the result of that perception. "My Return" is Jack Abbott's and Naomi Zack's story of the death of Richard Adan, the ensuing trial, and Abbott's return to prison.It is comprised of "The Death of Tragedy", a play based on the actual court records; an illustrated appendix giving stage directions and the background of the issues and people involved; and "Men of Letters", a collection of Abbott's essays on a variety of topics - religious, philosophical, historical, and literary - including an autobiographical account of his tragic life.